Highlights From the 4 Winners of the 2018 Young Talent Architecture Award

Each year, the Fundació Mies van der Rohe and Creative Europe organize the Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA). The goal of the award is to highlight some of the most talented recent graduates in the fields of Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture. This year, four standout innovators who are making their mark on a wide variety of landscapes received the YTAA.

In 2018, over 300 projects were nominated for the YTAA. Just 40 of them made the shortlist, and only 12 moved to the final round. A jury selected the four winning projects from that dozen. Let’s take a closer look at the designs from these standout architects.

Julio Gotor Valcárcel: ‘Perdido (Lost) – P.R.U.S. of Madrid’

Julio Gotor Valcárcel graduated from the Madrid School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. His Young Talent Architecture Award project builds on the heritage of Madrid. Underneath Madrid exist spaces called galleries – remnants of the city’s ancient water infrastructure. The vision for “Perdido” is “to recover part of the existing galleries, to generate new connections and to propose interventions making new access and new spaces.” By revitalizing those long-dormant plots of land, this design creates new public space in Madrid built (quite literally) on its history.

Matthew Gregorowski: ‘Deplorable Framework’

Matthew Gregorowski graduated from the Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University. “Deplorable Framework” interlaces a number of complex, modern themes, from housing for the elderly to humans’ environmental impact to Brexit. Gregorowski proposes the growth of a large new forest alongside the growth of a settlement nestled within it. The development of the settlement would keep pace with the growth of the forest. Gregorowski proposes adding elements as the surrounding natural landscape becomes able to support them. He explains that “Deplorable Framework” builds on the mentality of “taking this moment as an opportunity to explore alternative approaches to the governance and inhabitation of the countryside.”

“Neue Bau|akademie Berlin — a club for the former & future architecture” by Hendrik Brinkmann.

Hendrik Brinkmann: ‘Neue Bau|akademie Berlin — a club for the former & future architecture’

Hendrik Brinkmann, another 2018 winner of the Young Talent Architecture Award, graduated from the College of Architecture, Media and Design at the Berlin University of the Arts. He adds his voice to an ongoing debate among architects about the reconstruction of the Bauakademie. Architects have long celebrated the 1830s-era Bauakademie for its sleek facade and innovative (at the time) use of red brick. In 1962, it was demolished – but not forgotten. For over 30 years, groups have submitted proposals to rebuild the Bauakademie. With this project, Brinkmann says, “The task is to build a critical link between the previous and the nascent, between memory and vision. The process of design thereby becomes a balancing act between providing sameness and introducing new expressions.”

Loed Stolte: ‘The Bank of England: a dialectical project’

Loed Stolte graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology. His “Bank of England” uses visually engaging elements to tell a story and put forward a hope. Stolte envisions not just a world where national banks add beauty to the landscape, but also one where financial burden is alleviated for the masses. With the rise of cryptocurrency, Stolte’s design embodies the potential new role of banking institutions “as central bank, to issue ‘digital cash’ as debt-free alternative for bank credit (i.e. electronic money), thus fulfilling [the bank’s] historic dialectic (private banker to the state > public banker to the banking sector) by opening itself up as the public bank for the whole society.”

The four Young Talent Architecture Award winners wowed their jurors and other key members of the architecture community. “These award-winning projects are excellent promises from a generation of young, talented architects who take up the responsibility and show good architectural citizenry,” says Oya Atalay Franck, President of the European Association for Architectural Education.

What do you think of these four designs from the most up-and-coming minds in architecture today? Photography by YTAA.

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